Last night, Joan Ganz Cooney was honored at Sesame Workshop’s Annual Gala. This is the first time that Joan, who co-founded the Children’s Television Workshop 45 years ago and remains Chair of the Workshop’s Executive Committee, was honored by her colleagues. It won’t be the last honor conferred—though Joan, who is incredibly modest given the […]
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Available Now: Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents
May 27, 2014
This spring, Oxford University Press released an important new contribution to the literature of media and developmental psychology with Media and the Well-Being of Children and Adolescents, edited by Amy B. Jordan and Daniel Romer. The volume examines the role that media play in the daily lives of families with children, from “traditional” media such […]
Social And Emotional Benefits Of Video Games: Metacognition and Relationships
May 23, 2014
Part 4 of MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning. For years, most people thought that video games were like candy: mostly bad, tempting to children, but okay in moderation. Now we understand that they can have more “nutritional” value than our parents ever imagined. My brothers and I played Space Invaders and Pac Man, Asteroids […]
Open-ended Play for Young Children with Disney Infinity and Skylanders Swap Force
May 21, 2014
This spring I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing two of last year’s most anticipated new games: Disney Infinity and SWAP Force, the latest iteration of the Skylanders franchise. I look at these two games as part of my broader interest in how contemporary toys bridge physical and digital play experiences. Both games operate […]
Revisiting Games for Change 2014, Part 1
May 19, 2014
Are we living in a fantasy? Of the 70 or so panels, celebrations, play tests, and keynotes that took place last month at the 11th Annual Games for Change Festival in New York, nearly all made some mention of the potential for educational games. So what’s with all the hype? Why games and why now? […]
Math, Science, History: Games Break Boundaries Between Subjects
May 15, 2014
Part 3 of MindShift’s Guide To Game-Based Learning. For far too long, school has organized learning into divided disciplines: English, science, history, math, and so on. It seems fine because we’re all used to it. The problem, however, is that students then internalize a divided conception of knowledge; they’re conditioned into a view of life […]
Meet the Winners: Henry Edwards and Kevin Kopczynski
May 13, 2014
How Games Lead Kids to the Good Stuff: Understanding Context
May 8, 2014
Part 2 of MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning. Those who still think of content as the driving force of education may not be ready for game-based learning. What do we mean by “content”? In this age of digital media, “content” is what web designers, TV producers, and media moguls talk about. Articles, TV shows, […]
Meet the Winners: Sooraj Suresh
May 7, 2014
California high school student Sooraj Suresh was asleep when his father entered his room to tell him he had just won the National STEM Video Game Challenge. Sooraj was excited of course. But, like a typical teenager, he wasted no time in going back to sleep. The next day at school his friends congratulated him […]
Reflections on CHI 2014
May 5, 2014
Thanks to some fairly frequent conference travel over the past few years, my understanding of what makes up “the world of kids, media, and technology” is constantly expanding and changing. I consider myself incredibly privileged to have the vantage point that comes from traversing many difference academic- and industry-focused circles (just to name one way […]